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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
National
Jessica Sansome

Why do England fans sing Sweet Caroline during Euro 2020?

From Three Lions to Sweet Caroline, you've probably heard them all in the last few weeks.

As football fever grips the country, England fans have been full of song as they cheered on the national team.

Now there is just one game to go and a lot is resting on Gareth Southgate's side to make history by winning their first major tournament since the World Cup in 1966.

England will take on Italy at Wembley Stadium this evening and if there is time for celebration after the match, you may see the players and manager partaking in another sing song with fans in the stand.

READ MORE: A year to go until women’s Euros kicks off at Old Trafford

On Wednesday night, the likes of Harry Kane, Jordan Henderson, Mason Mount, Kyle Walker and the rest of the squad celebrated by joining fans by singing the song after their win over Denmark.

And with scenes like that possible again, we thought we'd look at how Sweet Caroline came to be a big hit among sporting fans.

Well, the Neil Diamond hit was released back in 1969 but never actually reached number one in the UK or Irish charts.

The closest it got to the top spot was number two in Canada.

Fast forward nearly three decades and the origin as a sporting anthem appears to be across the Atlantic, where Major League Baseball team the Boston Red Sox lays claim to sparking its popularity.

Neil Diamond is the man behind the famous song (Getty Images for Songwriters Hall Of Fame)

It is claimed that during a game at the Red Sox’s Fenway Park stadium in 1997 an employee in charge of ball-park music played ‘Sweet Caroline’ because someone they knew had just had a baby named Caroline.

For the next few years, the song would be played on select occasions but that all changed when Dr Charles Steinberg joined the Red Sox as executive vice president of public affairs in 2002 and came to the conclusion that the song had transformative powers.

He therefore ordered it to be played during every game.

This then spread to West Yorkshire and Super League side Castleford, who wanted to bring a liveliness to proceedings and the then chief executive Steve Gill, a Neil Diamond fan, had become aware of the crowd reaction to ‘Sweet Caroline’ at the Red Sox.

So they set about an experiment and parts of the track were played along with Tom Jones’ ‘Delilah’ and Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall’, post match to gauge fans' reaction.

The Tigers’ media manager Tom Maguire explained: "Sweet Caroline got the biggest reaction and it stuck."

Aston Villa have been credited for bringing the song into football, claiming the anthem as one of their own and was most notably played when the team got promoted to the Premier League under Dean Smith.

But the tune has also been heard at the Emirates Stadium when Arsenal win, and at T20 cricket sessions.

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